Coal mining in Plymouth, Pennsylvania

Smith and Lewis Hepburn, his business partner, bought a 75-acre plot (Lots 45 and 46 on the Plymouth Township Warranty Map) on the east side of Coal Creek, and in the fall of 1807, Smith floated an ark down the Susquehanna River loaded with about fifty tons of anthracite coal, shipping it to Columbia in Lancaster County.

But by the end of 1830, canal boats began to replace arks as the preferred method of transporting coal and other goods to market.

Gaylord—whose mine at the time was a tunnel at the base of Welsh Hill—improved on this method and built a gravity railroad that ran along what is now Walnut Street, down what is now Gaylord Avenue, to his wharf on the river.

[3] A similar road, called the Swetland Railroad, ran from a mine tunnel in Poke Hollow adjacent to Gaylord's, down a route which later became Washington Avenue, across Bull Run to another wharf on the river.

"[3] The 1858 Anthracite Map, prepared as part of the First Pennsylvania Geological Survey, illustrates Plymouth's mines and collieries at a moment of transition.

The Lackawanna & Bloomsburg Railroad was largely completed and had begun to replace the North Branch Canal as the preferred method for shipping coal.

His mine was closer than any other to the Nanticoke Dam and the entrance to the North Branch Canal, and when the railroad arrived, it ran right across Harvey's property.

About 1828, Thomas began to dig a tunnel through solid rock into the hillside, hoping to reach the famed Red Ash coal vein.

[5] He must have succeeded by 1834, for on the 6th of August that year, he petitioned the courts for the right to build a gravity railroad from his tunnel to a chute house along the Susquehanna River just above the Nanticoke Dam.

[6] The private railroad allowed Thomas to ship his coal to the iron forges in Danbury and to other points south via the newly built North Branch Canal.

[8] By 1935, the Glen Alden Coal Co. operated the Grand Tunnel but in September that year they leased the mine to George F. Lee, owner of the adjacent Chauncey Colliery.

After receiving these patents Roberts sold his soon-to-be valuable coal lands, and by 1810 was farming in Genoa Township, Delaware County, Ohio.

[27] In addition to Roberts' 120 acres (0.49 km2), the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad compiled a large number of lots, including part of Freeman Thomas's Grand Tunnel property.

[28] In 1863, John C. Phelps, a director of the DL&W, leased a portion of the Avondale property from William Reynolds and Henderson Gaylord, Plymouth natives.

[22] On February 9, 1935, Glen Alden Coal Co. (successor to the DL&W) began to dismantle and demolish the Avondale breaker and to close the mine.

Attracted by this outcrop, Abijah Smith came to Plymouth about 1806, and with his business partner Lewis Hepburn, bought a 75-acre plot (called Lots 45 and 46) on the east side of the creek, intending to mine, ship and sell coal.

Smith floated the ark from Wilkes-Barre to Plymouth, loaded it with about fifty tons of anthracite coal, and shipped it to Columbia, in Lancaster County.

[39] By 1835, the mine belonged to John Ingham (married in 1827 to Abijah Smith's widow), who lost it that year in a Sheriff's sale.

However, in August 1936, Glen Alden demolished the Nottingham breaker,[47] part of a general consolidation of mine operations in the Wyoming Valley.

[54] The Dodson Colliery was located at Bull Run in Plymouth Borough, and its breaker stood alongside the tracks of the Lackawanna & Bloomsburg Railroad.

In 1872, the company employed 80 men at the Dodson, sank the shaft to a depth of 280 feet (85 m), and began to experience problems with water infiltration.

About 1865, Lance and his sons bought the Gould Homestead, which ran from the Susquehanna River to State Street, just east of the Plymouth Borough line.

By this time, large coal companies were more concerned about their public image, and Glen Alden made an effort to make the building and grounds attractive.

They built a private railroad running from a mine tunnel in Poke Hollow along Brown's Creek, across what was then the Nesbit family farm to a wharf on the river near the corner of Gaylord Avenue and Main Street.

[52] On February 13, 1894, the Scranton Republican reported a large cave-in at the Gaylord mine: "We are called upon to detail the awful scenes of another miner horror.

Thirteen men who went down to repair some damaged work-lugs in the Gaylord slope at Plymouth are caught by a fall of coal and most probably called to the great beyond, their bodies crushed and very little hope entertained for their recovery for days to come."

According to the newspapers, in November 1906, the colliery began "mining on a large scale" and a "breaker ... erected which has a capacity of several hundred tons daily.

[80] The Swetland Shaft was located on the northwest corner of the intersection of Vine and State streets in the Poke Hollow section of what is now Larksville Borough.

[81] About 1855, Patten and Fender contracted with an English immigrant, John Dennis (a future Plymouth burgess), to sink a shaft to the coal seams below.

According to the obituary of Patrick Dooley:[85] ...in is early life he was actively engaged in mining, being one of the expert men of his time, and for forty-five years was superintendent of the Dickey Tunnel, now the D&H No.